May We Live In The Forest
by Lady Eldaelen
Summary: They spread out like the morning mist, melting among the trees and blending into the shadows. A pause as they settled, and then a sharp, trilling whistle. An answering call from across the east ridge. Roy searched for movement in the flowers. He hadn't heard that call in years. Drabble-y FMA AU in the Eyrewood. Yeah, I don't know what this is, either.
1. The Called

**May We Live In The Forest**  
~ Lady Eldaelen ~

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 **.jpg - The Called**

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"But he is… he can't be Called! I will not accept that!"

"Do you want to challenge me?"

"No, of course not-"

"Are you prepared to Leave?"

"I would never-"

"Then you must stop this senseless arguing. As surely as we live in the Forest, this boy is called."

"But he's just a baby!"

"And yet, he is here among us now."

"Well… what are we supposed to do with one so tiny?"

"We were all once his kind, and though our womb now is the Forest, all creatures within are under our care. We will know what to do. As you said, he's just a baby."

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 **.txt**

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Huh. I honestly though my first Penny Arcade crossover would be the Nightlight x Call The Midwife nonsense I've been noodling on since that Thornwatch panel at the last official Prime. C'est là, I suppose.

I picked up a book on paper flowers, therapeutic and quite enjoyable for my maker soul that demands moderately simple yet appreciably polished immediate results. Cut paper, smoosh paper, sometimes paint paper, tape. The only downside to my particular book is that most of these blooms are freaking Doomfist-y in size. Like, I don't have a penchant for tiny things but, man, the standard flower is massive.

Anywho, whilst figuring out what to do with the sudden influx in flowers, I came upon flower crowns. That led to the Eyrewood and what color were those Daughters' flowers again? Whilst searching for that bit of trivia I happened across an interview by The Mary Sue that I hadn't seen before and was sucked in on a question about gender spectrum in the land. Stay with me here, for it is not dissimilar to the aforementioned Nightlight x Midwifery tangent I hit upon, that being a comment Mike made about wanting to see nuns fighting baddies in the Nightlight realm. You see, I had spent the past couple of weeks prior (during some marathon flower making, actually) rewatching a large chunk of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherood and the streams were subsequently crossed. Phantomrose96's tumblr is a wealth of amazing discourse on FMA musings and her oneshots are gold. One post in particular on Roy Mustang and his backstory leapt to mind (138223298012). If ever there was a boy more suited for flipping the narrative on what it means to be a Daughter, it would be him. For those here more for the Eyrewood, manga/Brotherhood Roy was raised by his aunt who ran a hostess bar. Later in his military career he used dates with his 'sisters' to pass intel around. Good stuff.

The rest fell into place too quickly to ignore.

Eyrewood lore comes from three demo games of Thornwatch, multiple PAX panels over the past few years, and the comics posted on PA's site. One of these days I'll get my hands on the Lookouts book. One of these days we'll have more Daughters canon.

FMA integration comes from both animes and the manga. Consider this your spoiler warning for all of it.

These chapters are going to be shorter than this write up, because what is this thought experiment anyway? I hope we're all down with random- that is all there is to see here, move along.

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	2. The Brothers

**May We Live In The Forest**  
~ Lady Eldaelen ~

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 **.jpg - The Brothers**

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Edward followed the river, winding his way upstream because something was wrong with the water where they were now. He sensed it back before they had left the trail to cut across the warren, not that he could have explained how he knew that to anyone who might have asked. Not that they'd come across anyone else in nearly a week. It had just been him and his brother and the Forest. Speaking of Alphonse…

"Where'd you run off to now, Al?" Ed muttered. He climbed up the embankment and closed his eyes. Breathed deep. The very air stilled around him as he concentrated.

There.

He plowed through dense underbrush and reedy bunches of tall grass before scaling the ancient remains of a fallen tree. Alphonse looked up at him from a crouch in the small sheltered area of the log's shadow. Eyes wide, he alternated between frown and smile, guilty he'd been caught but eager to share his excitement. Always so eager.

"Brother, look what I found!" He gestured slowly, making a sort of half shrug so as to not disturb the two cubs in his arms and the one on his shoulder.

"I swear they intentionally find _you_ , Al," Ed remarked as he slid down into the nest. "Not these though, they're way too little."

"Yeah," Al said, voice softening even more. He rubbed the downy soft fur on one cub and laughed when it attacked his fingers. "Their flowers haven't even begun to bud yet."

"Which means their mom is probably somewhere close." Ed scanned the area and wished he'd stayed on top of the log.

"She was here earlier."

"What?!" Ed's hand reached for his dagger and the cub perched on Al's shoulder growled a very nonthreatening little squeak at the sudden movement.

"It's okay, Brother," Al soothed. He juggled his burdens around to free up a hand that immediately covered Ed's. Al worked his fingers free of the blade and then pulled his hand out and up so it could accept one of the cubs. "We're safe here. She won't attack us, not while I'm watching her babies."

"You… what?"

"When I found them, the whole family, she was really agitated, like she didn't want to leave but had to. So I said I'd watch them and then she left. Took off towards whatever is messing up the water."

"Huh." Ed hadn't mentioned his concerns about the water to Al yet.

"I don't think she'll be much longer," Al said, returning most of his attention to mugging on the cubs again, "they're getting hungry."

Ed studied the cub Al had deposited in his care. Barely open eyes still a clean milky white, coat still undifferentiated from a specific element's dominant coloring, he hated to admit how cute the little furball actually was. He obliged the cub a scratch behind the ears when it tried to head butt his chin and its purrs felt like sand through his fingers.

"Aren't they wonderful?"Al sighed happily. "I wish we could keep one."

"You know we can't. They're too young and we're going too far away. Who knows how long we'll be traveling? You don't want to take them away from home, do you?"

"No, I know." Al plucked the cub who had climbed its way up off the top of his head and set both of his cubs back down on the ground. "These little ones are already spoken for anyway."

Ed passed his cub back to Al and gave it one final pat before Al returned it to its kin. "They'll make the perfect familiars for their Daughters when they're all grown up."

They picked their way up and out of the nest and Ed nearly jumped when the mother shifted into his view. Al was already right up next to her, unbothered by her size and presence. He rested a hand on one of her legs and she brought her head down in what Ed could only assume was her own way of petting Al. His brother's touch with animals was ridiculous.

"Come on, Al, we should let her, uh, get back to… whatever."

Al nodded and gave her a final wave goodbye. Ed dipped in an awkward little bow and offered, "You have, um, a very nice family."

Al buried his head in his hands and even the mother let off a snort. "Really, Brother?"

And they continued on their own journey, retracing Ed's steps to the river. With their backs to the mother, the winds shifted and she disappeared into her nest.

"Don't worry, Al," Ed said, slinging one arm around his brother. "You'll have a cat someday."

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 **.txt**

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Ebb isn't a direct correlation to alchemical potential here, I'm likening it closer to the general Not Right-ness that plagued Amestris when Father started messing around. Likewise, alchemists aren't all Called, but they do stand out among the regular populous. Touched might be a better word, or maybe Awoken? I don't know. As direct descendants from Hohenheim and a lineage Before, Ed and Al are inherently more attuned to the Forest than most. And this whole crossover has made me want to draw so many things it's not even funny.

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	3. The Lady

**May We Live In The Forest**  
~ Lady Eldaelen ~

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 **.jpg - The Lady**

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Olivier was the firstborn. By the time her second sister came along, she was past the age most boys started earning badges. That didn't stop her from making her way through the ranks, demanding a seat in the circle. Her father backed her all the way- civic duty was a pillar of the family's values, after all. Something as inconsequential as being a girl made no difference to him, not when she proved more than capable of protecting the family.

She was given her own group of Lookouts the year her brother was born. By their last badge ceremony, he was of age to take the pledge. But his heart wasn't in it. Alex was soft- _weak,_ her mind whispered in the quiet moments while she stood patrol. He was a dutiful son, a loyal son… just not one cut out for the harsh life on the front lines against the Forest.

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They say that the mountains in the northern part of the Forest raises up the most accomplished Lookouts, but it's difficult to verify because hardly anyone ever leaves, least of all a Lookout. Very few risk crossing the mountains to visit, either.

What the few travelers _can_ attest to is that the Lady of the Mountain hasn't let Ebb cross her borders since she took up her post.

Some folks joke that even the Daughters don't dare tread North. Then they laugh uneasily and wonder how much truth is there.

The North is her home, her family. And family comes first. It's been that way for generations and Olivier will pass that legacy on, at any cost.

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 **.txt**

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My Kingdom Hearts playage has gone KH I, Coded, 358/2, Chain of Memories, half the Traverse Town beginning of Dream Drop Derp (never could figure out that swoopy sliding grind mechanic), BBS. I've got until February-ish(?) to finish KH II before III. I know! I'm working on it.

This unsystematic play did one thing: by the time I borrowed a PSP and finally played BBS, I could not believe the complete ineptitude of those early movie princesses. I went through huge swaths of the other games with minimal deaths, excluding bosses, and my first time leading Snow White through the forest she gets taken out by those trees three times in a row. Self-rescuing princess my Aunt Sally's rear end. Stop cowering, lady, I've got two more characters to play through!

Anywho, I know the Thornwatch game is all about those titular Thornwatchers, but in the FMA expansion, there would never be a protect-the-villagers scenario based in the North. Oh, Olivier Armstrong! Wanheda of Briggs. My Lady of the Mountain. Your villagers would not be helpless red shirts, pummeled by trees, no ma'am. You trained them better than that. If Roy is gender bending the Daughters, Olivier is doing the same in the Lookouts.

And _how good_ was the '90s _Heidi_ with Jason Robards, am I right? I can still hear Jane Seymour yelling, 'Adelheid!' and sneezing on a pack mule. Is that the childhood nostalgia talking? Probably. Don't ruin it for me.

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	4. The Outsiders

**May We Live In The Forest**  
~ Lady Eldaelen ~

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 **.jpg - The Outsiders**

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May didn't want to admit she was following them… but she was. They hadn't left together, no, she had actually ventured from home well before the trio of Yao clansmen overtook her.

She spotted their fire that last night in the open desert. She recognized her brother, knew the Yao clan's bodyguards were quite possibly the best in the whole family. But the Changs were sneakier. Her own reconnaissance revealed that they, too, were searching for the reported power hidden in the Forest. Anything to boost their standing for the throne.

May almost gave away her cover when she discovered their plan was pretty much her plan. But she held her tongue and her frustration and slipped away unnoticed. She camped just inside the tree line, feeling at least some vindication for being the first royal child of Xing to enter the West's unknown Forest. After so long staring at nothing but sand and sky, the lush foliage welcomed her like a siren. She and Xiao Mei spent an uneasy night acclimating to the new sounds and rhythms of this uncharted land. And if she happened to shadow the Yaos as they travelled deeper in the next day, it was for her own safety. Three against one wasn't fair.

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The Forest didn't agree with him. Fu physically stopped at the edge of trees, his entire body screaming a thousand warnings to not cross inside. He would die here.

"So if we can make it to the center by the solstice, we should be able to learn what we need and be home before the end of the year," the young lord's idle chatter slowly faded as he and his granddaughter walked further in.

Ran Fan didn't answer, she rarely did out loud, but Fu saw her nod, and the young lord smiled.

Fu took one step inside. And then another. Duty first. Dying would come later.

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"Well, well. Looks like Ran Fan was right. How long have have you been following us, little Chang?"

"I got here first, Ling Yao! And _I'm_ going to take the Forest's secrets back home, not you!"

"Perhaps this isn't the best time to be arguing about securing the throne for the young lord?" Fu yelled from somewhere in the tree tops. A second later a winged beast slammed to the Forest floor, Ran Fan driving home her blade deep in its chest.

May and Ling both startled when a screech echoed above them and branches and feathers rained down. They jumped back and alternated dodges and kicks to another monster as it attacked.

When at last they finally had a chance to breathe uninterrupted, Ling eyed his small sister in new light. Covered in the same unknown grime and unnatural gore, she mirrored his slowly changing expression. Her stance kept shifting, like she was having trouble finding her balance. Ling could sympathize, he'd felt off as soon as the edges of the Forest had disappeared from view. Perhaps they both had underestimated this place.

Clans did not ally back home, but this Forest was not home. Four against the Forest didn't feel particularly fair, but it was a sight better than one against three against the Forest. Ran Fan adjusted the grip on her knives, coiled tight and ready to continue protecting him, even from a not-so-harmless little sister.

"I'm willing to consider the Forest neutral," Ling said, throwing out his arms with an expansive wave. "Not that it will make much difference in the long run, because I will lead the Yaos to the throne with what we find here."

Surprised, May dropped some of her hostility, as did Ran Fan.

"We'll just see about that, Ling Yao," May conceded warily. She wiped her forehead with the cuff of her jacket, leaving a faint purplish streak from the oozings of the odd monsters they'd battled. From somewhere nearby came a scuttling in the foliage, and a small black and white creature scaled up his little sister's back to perch on her head.

Ling, Ran Fan, and Fu all peered down at them, and Ling chuckled. "Is everything in the Chang clan miniature-sized? Come on, let's wash up. We passed a river about twenty minutes back."

"No," May said, striking out deeper into the Forest. "There's a lake less than ten minutes this way. I can feel it."

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 **.txt**

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Ah, the Xing contingent. If we take the Eyrewood as a whole, what lies outside its boundaries? What does one from Beyond make of Ebb?

Since more than just those practicing alkahestry can sense the dragon's pulse to some extent, surely they would find something off about the Forest.

Hmm… the more I think on it, the more I peg May with her akahestry background as halfway to a Daughter. The longer she spends in the Forest, the more she starts sussing out some of its secrets. Wakes up one morning with flowers woven in among her braids. Quite possibly she would be the one to make it to the Heart of the Forest first, but Ling still returns to Xing to be crowned king… maybe because May stays? I've got this amusing idea that the longer they traipse through the Eyrewood, the bigger Xiao Mei grows.

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	5. The Sage of the Wood

**May We Live In The Forest**  
~ Lady Eldaelen ~

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 **.jpg - The Sage of the 'Wood**

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He spends his days weaving in and out around the Forest's perimeter, preparing. He remembers the Light, when things were, in many ways, simpler. When evil resided more often in man than beast. When the Forest was Whole.

The endless cycle of what ifs and other meandering thoughts take away the tedium of his tasks as he traverses around and through and back again. Whenever he needs a reminder of what it's like to live in the world, he finds a village, takes heart in the simple kindnesses the inhabitants always grace him with, tries to leave it and them in a better condition than when he arrived. More often than not, though, his travels are solitary. Regardless, he is never truly alone. How can he be, in the Forest?

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"It's been a long time, Hohenheim."

"So it has, Dante, so it has."

"I've been hearing things… You're getting sloppy, my girls have spotted you all over the Forest."

"I have no reason to hide. We're not enemies."

"We're not on the same side, either. Not anymore."

"I side with the Forest, which, last time I checked, is what you claim as well, no?"

"You know what I mean, Hohenheim."

"I know the current situation is untenable. We both know the balance isn't there. And what needs to change to restore it."

"Watch yourself, Hohenheim. The Forest is a dangerous place."

"It doesn't have to be, Dante. It never had to be."

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 **.txt**

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I have a soft spot for the 2003 FMA anime. Though the manga storyline is tops, Brotherhood's art style kind of got to me after a while. Same with the voice actor changes. It stems from living through the Dragonball Z transfer to Funimation back in high school where literally everyone sounded different mid-Frieza saga- and then they went back and redubbed everything else. I spent the re-airing immediately after wondering if my original DBZ experience was all a fever dream. RIP, Ocean dub Krillin, I was a fan. 2003 Breda, same.

Dante was one of those 2003-only characters wrapped up in homunculi differences and that's cool. And even though I have no idea what role they play in the Eyrewood, if ever there was a crone, Dante of the Deep Forest is ready straight out of central casting.

Heh. This chapter is titled for Hoho!papa and I haven't even mentioned him yet. But you can't bring Dante into the mix without him. I love his manga development, how he sort of is in low-key Beast Mode all the time just chugging away at this ridiculously intricate plan he's been working on for epochs. Hohenheim is older than the Forest, or at least he's older than its current Ebb-y iteration. He knows what's up. He knows what he has to do. Even if that means going up against his former lover in the middle of the Sacred Lands. Oh man, I know _Conqueror of Shamballa_ was more of a hot mess than the rest of this paragraph, but Dragon!Envy would actually fit quite nicely here… Ooh! And Dante could slot in rather well for a Mother-like substitution of Father set in the Heart of the Forest. She'd totally be luring in girls like Lyra as false Daughters, amassing them like Father did to high command. Oh, spoilers? If you haven't seen or read FMA by now, why are you even reading this?

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	6. The Daughter

**May We Live In The Forest**  
~ Lady Eldaelen ~

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 **.jpg - The Daughter**

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She was born into a long line of healers and woodworkers. Both trades were respected and highly regarded in the villages. Up until her parents left, the family debated whether she would follow her father and mother and grandfather into healing or if she had inherited her grandmother's skill with tools.

But that was before.

Ebb had been encroaching on the neighboring villages since before she was born, but it reached a head the summer she turned six. The closest village to them, just across the lake, lost half their men, their healers, most of their fighters. Many parents loaded their children into boats to make the perilous lake crossing as their homes burned. The ones that made it to shore found refuge and shared what they had escaped.

Her parents were among the few that crossed the lake to provide support.

They never returned.

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"Winry."

The voice sounded far off, echoing and drawn out. She tried to answer, but her body wasn't working with her thoughts. Eventually she managed to at least open her eyes.

"Oh."

She stood in the meadow behind their homestead, the thin sliver of waning moon highlighting the bare branches of the trees. She shivered in her nightdress and glanced down curiously at her bare feet, muddied and chilled through.

"Granny, what are we doing here?"

"I don't know, dear, but we best get warmed up."

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The first kettle of hot water goes toward a foot cleaning and warming soak. Pinako grabs her extra shawl and wraps the frozen girl up well before setting another pot on for tea.

Hazy memories from nearly a lifetime ago gain focus and Pinako clutches the table to steady herself. She isn't ready to live them again.

Later, she brushes the girl's golden locks, the same way she remembers her older sister doing to her so long ago that it could have been just a passing dream. Her sister barely registers in Pinako's memory, just a few vague impressions of warmth and comfort.

Winry is a unexpected family name, her sister's name. Pinako can't remember speaking it around her son, but he took to using it for his only child long before the towhaired girl was born. How cruel the fates are, to pick her family out one more time.

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A week ago, Pinako watched her granddaughter, who had already bedded down for the night, walk to the front door, eyes open but unseeing. Winry reached for the latch _,_ paused, then turned around and went back to her own bed.

Two nights ago, she made it to the end of the porch before stopping. She stayed there for nearly ten minutes, foot poised just above the first step. She paced the length of the porch before going back inside.

Tonight, when Winry emerged from her room on ghost steps, Pinako followed her to the meadow and waited nearly an hour before calling the girl back.

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"You don't remember the other times, do you?"

"What other times? Have I been… why am I…"

"I can't explain it anymore than you can, dear. But maybe next time, you should follow whatever it is you're feeling."

Winry bursts into tears. "I can't just leave! What about you? What about Ed and Al?"

Pinako busies herself with fixing up a pipe, anything to keep her heart from crumbling at the thought of an empty house. Of losing another Winry.

"If anyone is going to understand, it will be those two." She doesn't mean to sound so bitter, not when there's such little time left. "Don't you worry about me. I'll be here for Ed and Al whenever they come around again."

Winry nods and fresh tears spill over her cheeks. Pinako holds her until they both fall asleep.

Pinako searches the house the next morning, but Winry is already gone.

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 **.txt**

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I love me some FMA women. That show is brimming with strong females doing their own BAMFy things, kicking butt and taking all the names. Winry doesn't quite make my top three (maybe top five? how glorious is it that there's volume enough to even pick a top five?), but that's more for my penchant to eschew main characters than anything else. As she's part of a literal Golden Trio, though, she well deserves to earn her own chapter.

Since the Eyrewood feels decidedly pre-steampunky, rocking an automail engineering equivalent seems unlikely. I like the idea of having Winry be a Daughter. She gets to go off and have her own adventures outside of waiting around for Ed and Al to finish their quest... whatever it is in this context. Irritating Roy, probably.

Also, in my FMA headcanon, post-manga Izumi and Sig eventually leave the butcher shop in Dublith to Mason so they can relocate to wherever Ed and Winry end up, to be nearer the quote-unquote _grandkids_. This completely baffles Ed, but Winry gets it and immediately has them babysit so she and Ed can resume their date nights. By which I mean she can get Ed to buy her dinner and some new tools while he works out that his teacher considers him family. It's a win-win for all.

Eyrewood translation, Harry Potter filter: if Izumi and Sig are Marauders-era, and Ed, Winry, and Al are the aforementioned literal Golden Trio, then Winry and Ed are the redemptive second chance parallel to Izumi and Sig in a post-Ebb Forest. QED.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

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 **.txt part deux**

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Okay. This wraps up the first drabble dump. My current plan is to pick up that Lookouts book at South or as soon as I get back. This whole bunny _was_ birthed with Roy, and I've got a bunch of Team Mustang stuff half-fleshed out… but I'm nothing if not realistic, so I'm happy with what I covered. Anything else I get around to posting later is just bonus.

Who am I kidding? Of course there will be at least one more update. Just don't complain if it's in five years.

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